Chapter 9
April
My eyes flicked again to the Beast, who was doing his best to mad dog me from across the room. What was he trying to prove by being here, anyway? I shot him another set of invisible daggers across the room. He was sitting at a table with two women and a good-looking, dark-haired guy who looked really familiar for some reason. After puzzling it out for a moment, I remembered that I’d seen him at Draco. A fellow employee.
“So what do you think of my plan?” Cari was muttering to me on this end of the table, completely ignoring the two guys talking to Ingrid and Sheila at the other end.
“What plan again?”
“You know… about a certain devilishly handsome CEO we both know.”
I poked my straw into the dregs of my drink, twirling it around the ice cubes. When she’d first proposed this absurd “plan” to me a half hour before, I’d finally decided she must be insane. Of course, I was too chicken shit to say it. I shrugged.
She scowled. “Come on, April. We were all in marketing working together last year. You, me and her. Why did he pick her…do you ever wonder that? Over you or me? What does she have? It’s like…he was totally unattainable to all of us, and then one night at the employee party in Vegas, he started drinking and then dancing with Mia. The next thing everybody knows, they’re a couple. Did she put Rohypnol in his drink or something?”
I suppressed rolling my eyes. “We have no idea what happened. They could have been dating before that, Cari.” I licked my lips. “Anyway, it’s crying over spilt milk now. He put a ring on it. He’s engaged.”
Her eyes were burning with a strange sort of intensity. “He hasn’t put a ring on it yet. At least not the ring that counts. And even if he had… well…it wouldn’t be the first marriage I’d broken up.” She batted her eyes and swished her impossible amounts of blond hair. “My senior English seminar teacher, to be specific. His wife left him because of me.”
I raised a brow. His job probably left him because of her, too.
“So you have a superpower?”
She tilted her head haughtily. “Why certainly, if I do say so myself. And now my sights are set on Adam.”
“But you don’t seem to have gotten very far.”
She flicked her eyebrows up as if sharing a lurid secret. “I catch him checking me out sometimes.”
I sighed. I highly doubted that.
“Why not? I’ve got more tits and ass than she had even before she got sick.”
I pushed my cup of ice cubes in my face to hide the utter shock and disgust I felt at her words. She was a piece of work, and I wondered what had possessed me to join her and her cronies out here tonight.
Oh yes, it was because she had pestered me incessantly for two days straight and punctuated it with her pointed concern: “I hope no one finds out it was you in the video. I’m so nervous for you. You must be stressed out. Can I buy you a drink?”
There’d been a clear message there. Play nice with her or she could make trouble. I wondered how I could get out of this before she started increasing the pressure with more threats. As usual, I’d keep my mouth shut and play nice while trying to think my way out of the situation.
But there might not be an easy way. Besides avoidance. I could do that…I was an expert at it. My dad had been trying to get a hold of me for almost a month now. And my mom would be needing a PI soon in order to get a call through to me.
If they gave degrees in avoidance, I’d have a Ph.D. and everyone would be calling me Dr. Weiss.
“I’m going to get another drink.”
“Is this one going to have alcohol in it?” she asked.
I slipped off my stool and shrugged. I was still honoring my vow to never drink alcohol again. She called after me as I headed to the bar. “When you get back, we are going to discuss the plan.”
I resisted shaking my head, afraid that she would see. I pressed up against the bar and noticed the nearest bartender was talking to a pair of tall and very beautiful blondes. I gave the front of my dress a tug to show some cleavage and then leaned forward. Another bartender appeared in front of me in one minute flat. I smiled, shaking my empty glass. “Can I get another Shirley Temple?”
He frowned, apparently certain he’d misheard me.
“Yeah, you heard it right.”
His brow twitched and he smiled. “Coming right up, beautiful.”
I smiled. Even if he was milking me for a bigger tip, I didn’t care. Tonight especially, I really needed to hear it.
The bartender turned back to me, placing the drink down on the bar. I handed him my money and he rang me up. But to my surprise, he didn’t move on. “I’m Chris. How are you tonight?”
“April. Nice to meet you. Currently, I’m trying to avoid my psycho friend.”
He flicked a glance over my shoulder. “The blondie over there? She does have a bit of the crazy eyes going on.”
I smirked, pressing the drink to my lips. “It’s not the only thing crazy about her.”
He laughed and gave me the once-over. Okay, I’d already paid and tipped him, so I decided he wasn’t just trying to snag a bigger tip from me. I gave him my best flirty smile.
“That’s not the only crazy-ass thing about this night. My even crazier boss is over on the other side of the room trying to hit on women twice his age.”
He threw his head back and laughed. “Well, who said we didn’t have entertainment?”
I licked my lips and he followed the motion, his gaze lingering on my mouth. “So I’m off in an hour. You planning on hanging around?”
“I just might be.” I flashed him another smile. He was cute. Not overwhelmingly gorgeous, but my track record with those types was not good. I swallowed as I remembered not too many days before when I’d had a heart-stoppingly gorgeous man all over me.
I flicked another gaze across the bar at him. He was chatting with the women at his table, but his eyes were on me. When our gazes met, his eyes visibly narrowed. What was he, my babysitter?
I pressed the drink to my lips again, this time clasping the glass so that my middle finger was visible to him, obviously positioned that way on purpose. When he saw, his eyebrows rose. With a wide grin, I put the drink down and shot the bartender another flirty smile.
“Be right back…where’s the ladies’ room?”
He pointed. “Don’t lose your way back to me, lovely April.”
Ugh. That was cheesy. But my grin remained pasted to my face as I slipped away from the bar and weaved between crowded tables toward the back of the room and down a dark hallway.
I twisted the knob on the scuffed-up bathroom door, finding it locked. Damn it. I didn’t frequent this place at all, but if it was like other bars, there were probably people fucking in there. I didn’t have to go to the bathroom that badly. It had been an excuse to get away, maybe spend fifteen minutes sitting in a stall reading on my phone. This whole night was proving deeply annoying, between Cari’s “plot” to go after Adam—and somehow, vaguely involve me in it—and Jordan’s unexpected appearance and subsequent social butterfly routine. Personally, I would never have pegged him for a place like this. I would have thought he did his woman-trawling at private parties for the rich and famous and incredibly hot model and actress hopefuls.
With a sigh of frustration, I stepped away from the bathroom door and pressed my back up to the fake wood paneling on the wall in the narrow hallway. Well, the good news was that, wherever I was—whenever I didn’t want to be there—as long as I had my phone, I had an e-book I could read. And I was currently in the middle of the steamiest, most lurid romance novel ever, complete with a rotten-to-the-core motorcycle gang biker dude chasing after the virginal preacher’s daughter.
I slid back along the wall when I heard someone coming toward me and flattened to make room for the person to move past. But the person stopped right beside me, and I had the sensation he or she was reading my phone over my shoulder. I looked up into Jordan’s face.
“What the hell are you reading?” he asked.
I clicked the phone off, shoving it into my shoulder bag. “None of your business. What are you doing here?” I spun, facing him. Now that I was seeing him up close, I couldn’t help but notice he looked particularly fetching tonight. He was wearing black jeans that hugged his slim hips and a dark green button-down shirt, open at the collar to reveal his strong neck. I swallowed and looked away.
“I was thirsty,” he said with a mocking gleam in his eyes. He glanced around the narrow hallway then his eyes fixed on the back door. “What are you doing back here?”
“Waiting for the bathroom. It’s locked.”
“There’s probably somebody fucking in there.”
I turned and pressed my shoulder against the wall, folding my arms. “So how’s the hitting on the old ladies going? Get any of them to take out their dentures for you?”
His eyes flashed dangerously. “The older ones know what they’re doing. Sometimes better than the young ones.”
His comment knocked the breath right out of me. That same old hurt from Gunnar and my mom. My mouth fell open and then I snapped it closed again, turning around because he blocked my way back into the bar. And I really didn’t want to go back in there anyway, because tears were now prickling my eyes. So I turned and grabbed the back doorknob, gave it a twist and ended up in the alley behind the bar. I slammed the door behind me, but two seconds later Jordan pushed his way through.
It was dark and quiet back here. The only lighting came from a distant street lamp. Tiny puddles of gross water collected in dips of asphalt. And naturally, there was a distinct stench coming from the direction of a big green dumpster.
Jordan glanced around and then looked at me, eyes wide. “What the hell was that about?”
I turned my head away from him, quickly brushing tears away with the back of my hand. “That was about getting the hell away from you. Too bad you can’t take a hint.”
His eyes narrowed as he watched me, then his thumb brushed across my cheek as if to verify what he was seeing. “Are you crying?”
I gave a sniff and jerked my head away. “No. Go away now.”
He ignored me, of course. “What’s going on, Weiss? Did that bartender say something to you? I’ll go fuck him up.”
“No. I’m fine. He was nice. Nicer than any other guy I’ve talked to in months.”
He didn’t say anything in reply, just scowled. If possible, he looked even hotter when he scowled—it was an intense sort of look, with his eyes narrowing like darts that could punch a hole right through me. Then he cleared his throat and looked away. He pulled a bar napkin from his back pocket and handed it to me.
I took it without a word, blotted tears from my cheeks and blew my nose. “How much have you had to drink?” he asked quietly.
“No alcohol. I do stupid shit when I drink.”
He frowned. “So what’s with the crying then?”
I shrugged. “You’re my boss, not my psychotherapist.”
“Are you going home with that bartender?”
“Is that any of your business?”
He moved in close, standing right in front of me, bracing a hand on the wall above my head. My heart hammered in my chest. He ran a finger along the line of my jaw, giving me that intense look again. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he visibly swallowed.
“I’m making it my business.” Then his finger slipped down the column of my throat, over my collarbone and right to the deep cleavage of my neckline. Where his finger traced my skin, his touch burned. I felt it clear down to my bones. My chest squeezed tight. I couldn’t breathe. He pissed me off and turned me on like no other man could. I froze as his head dipped so that his lips were mere millimeters from mine. I could feel his breath on my face. And I didn’t smell alcohol like I’d expected to.
“You’re a good girl, April Weiss. And those are the worst kind.”
I frowned, completely confused. And then his hand was on my thigh, sliding slowly up my skirt. His eyes shot a challenge into mine. He seemed to be daring me to stop him. I didn’t. Instead, I reached out and brushed my hand against his crotch, rubbing him through his jeans. He sucked in his breath and hardened immediately under my touch.
“Tell me to stop, April,” he whispered.
I wouldn’t. I continued to rub him until his erection was straining against his fly. His hand was now on my panties, lightly stroking me through the silky material. I let out a little whimper and the world spun around me. His fingers pushed aside my panties and then he was rubbing me along the seam of my sex.
When I gasped, it was into his mouth because it had sealed over mine, muting me. As his tongue thrust into my mouth, I pressed my chest into his. His entire body was hard—almost as hard as the wall behind me. I felt enclosed, hemmed in, disoriented. I was completely absorbed, as if he were weaving a spell around me with his hands and his tongue.
“Did he tell you that you were beautiful?” he whispered, his mouth kissing its way to my temple now. My eyes fluttered closed. Transfixed, I could only focus on what his hands were doing. One was now relentlessly rubbing against my clit, the other winding through my hair at the nape of my neck. I had one hand still groping him through his jeans while the other untucked his shirt and skimmed across his flat abs. He felt amazing. He smelled even better.
“Did he?”
“Yes,” I moaned.
“Did he tell you how much he wanted to taste you?”
I didn’t answer. I was being drawn under by his spell. That gnawing, deep want cutting deep to my core. My body was awakening under the touch of those magical hands.
“He wants to taste you. He wants his mouth all over your pretty tits.”
His touch against my clit intensified, and I began to feel that familiar climb to climax. He was going to make me come right here in this back alley in no time. And I didn’t care. I wanted him to.
Jordan’s hand released my hair and skimmed along the neckline of my dress, tucking a finger underneath and hooking into my bra. With a light tug, my breast was free and feeling the cool night air for mere milliseconds before his mouth was on me, as he’d said. He sucked my nipple into his mouth as if he were starving, feasting on me. He let loose a growl at the back of his throat and bolts of searing lightning streaked right through me. I arched my back, pushing into him, and he pressed me down—hard—against the wall, knocking my breath from me. He sucked harder, and the impossible pleasure of his hand moving at my center began to spread over my legs and stomach, gorgeous heat washing over me. With a shout that echoed across the alleyway, I came in sharp, breath-stealing spasms of pure ecstasy.
Fuck, it felt so good I never wanted it to end. His hand stilled, but he kept sucking my nipple and I shuddered under him. His cock leapt under my touch, straining in his jeans. He pressed his crotch into my hold and he pulled his mouth free.
“He wants to feel you come when he’s inside you, April.”
“Yes,” I breathed against his neck.
“And he really, really wants to fuck you.”
“Jordan,” I moaned.
He pulled away from me and cool air passed between us. He was breathing hard, and I was still awash in the afterglow of one incredibly intense orgasm. My limbs felt slow to respond, listless. Slowly, he took hold of my wrist and pulled my hand away from his swollen crotch, his eyes burning into mine.
I tucked my breast back into my bra. He watched me, his tongue darting out over his bottom lip. If we weren’t in some dark back alley somewhere, I wouldn’t have let him pull away, wouldn’t have stood for him to not finish until he was inside me. I needed him inside me. No, it was more than a need. More than a hunger. It was like finding a missing piece of me and needing to fit it to fill the empty gap within.
I shook my head, dismissing that thought. It was way too deep, way too emotional. And I didn’t do that anymore. I wasn’t going to let myself get swept up again by a pretty face—fantastic, amazing hands or not. He’d only shatter me worse than Gunnar had.
This was all physical. And it felt good. So I was going to let myself enjoy it, but feelings weren’t allowed.
I cleared my throat and tried to ignore that he was still watching me with that intense, narrow gaze.
“You’re not going home with him,” he said. A statement, not a question. And of course, he was right. I hadn’t even been considering it before this, and now that Jordan had put his hands and mouth all over me, there was no way I’d be satisfied with a random hookup. But I didn’t want him to know it.
I shrugged. “I can do what I want,” I said.
His beautiful face darkened in a scowl. He opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, the door to the bar pushed open again and the dark-haired man that Jordan had been with earlier was now in the alley with us. Jordan backed even further away from me and turned a little away from him, still noticeably aroused. I pushed off the wall and brushed a hand down the front of my dress as if nothing at all had just happened.
Jordan’s friend looked pissed. “What are you doing out here?”
Jordan ran a hand over his hair. “April was upset. I just wanted to make sure she was okay.”
“She looks fine to me.”
“Um. Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine,” I said, clearing my throat. “I feel… very, very good as a matter of fact.”
Jordan shot me a dirty look. “April, do you know William Drake?”
William was now looking uneasy, not meeting my eyes. He was tall, dark-haired and good-looking, if a little strangely dressed—blue khakis and a brown and green patterned knit sweater. He had dark eyes and a visible five o’clock shadow—probably one that appeared five minutes after he shaved in the morning.
“We’ve never met, no. Are you related to Adam?”
“He’s my first cousin,” William said.
“Oh. Oh, okay.” I silently wondered if I should introduce him to Cari. Maybe it would distract her from her fixation with Adam. But I suspected that she was like a bloodhound after the first scent of the fox and that nothing would deter her, not even the good-looking and single first cousin.
“I, uh…I’d better get going,” I said, attempting to push my way around Jordan to get to the door.
Jordan’s hand closed around my upper arm. “William and I can give you a ride home,” he said.
I shrugged out of his hold. “I drove myself. I’m fine.”
“You’re going home now?” he said, but it sounded more like a statement than a question. I wanted to argue with him, but I really had no desire to stay. I wanted nothing more than to climb into my fleecy PJs, wrap myself in my comforter and pull out my worn copy of Pride and Prejudice to lose myself in Mr. Darcy. Another incredibly hot man who was terribly full of himself.
I only shrugged. I wasn’t going to give Jordan the satisfaction of agreeing with him.
His eyes hardened. “Well, just remember there’s going to be a whole crapload of work on your desk in the morning. I have lots of notes regarding your project and I want that first draft before you leave. You need to be there at seven.”
My eyes widened and my jaw fell open. I was about to protest, but he turned to his friend and said, “C’mon, William, let’s go finish what we started in there.”
Then he turned the knob on the door, snapped it open and was gone. I fell back against the wall with a sigh before realizing that William was still standing there watching me.
He bent and opened the door, holding it for me, indicating I should go through before him. I straightened. “Thank you, William. It was nice to meet you.”
“We met already. You just don’t remember.”
“Oh…oh really? I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry you don’t remember?”
I frowned, rubbing my temple, and ducked in through the doorway ahead of him. He closed the door and we were standing in the back hall. At last, the bathroom appeared empty. Jordan was nowhere to be seen.
I stopped and turned back to William. He’d been watching me with a frown but jerked his eyes away when I looked at him.
“I don’t want to go out there and finish what he started,” William said, peering down the hallway.
“What did he start?”
“Well, he wants me to think he was here to show me something, but I think he was here to watch you. So if you’re leaving, I have a feeling he will too.”
“He was here to watch me? What for?”
William’s eyes shifted from my left shoulder to my right shoulder, as if unable to connect with my gaze. “I have no idea. But hopefully you are going so he won’t force me to stay with him.”
I laughed, glancing down the hallway again. If I didn’t have to be in to work at the crack of dawn the next morning, it might be worth it to hang out here late in order to spite Jordan. My fist closed. Damn it. Mr. Darcy and my fuzzy jammies beckoned.
“Don’t worry, William. I’m going home after I visit the little girl’s room.”
William looked visibly relieved.
I decided against hitting the bathroom and instead followed him back into the bar. At my table, five guys sat talking to the three women. I made a quick excuse about a sudden migraine and then hightailed it out of there before Cari could say anything.
I didn’t even chance a glance at the other side of the bar to see if Jordan had left. But when I was out in the parking lot headed toward my car, I walked by the big, flashy Range Rover that I once drove to the car wash and noted that there were two people inside.
A minute after I pulled out of my parking space, the Range Rover did the same. At least he didn’t go full stalker on me and follow me home. He went straight when I made my first right turn.
I blinked, still completely confused about the goings-on of today—and beyond that, this entire week. Since that heated night when Jordan kissed me on his couch, I hadn’t been able to get him out of my mind. And I’d failed miserably at avoiding him.
Apparently, I was an expert at avoiding everyone else, but when it came to Jordan Fawkes, I sucked at it.
Probably because…deep down, I didn’t want to.